I don't think it's as simple a matter as "It's the parents' fault" or "It's the teachers' fault" or "It's the government's fault" or anything. When you come right down to it, there's plenty of blame to pass around.
Sure, American culture values learning and education a lot less than other countries do. Being Vietnamese had a lot to do with how well I did in school. And if you learned how to read at home from your parents, that's fantastic. But a lot of parents nowadays work jobs that don't give them as much time with their kids as they used to, and an ever increasing number of homes have a single mother working two jobs who is more worried about simply putting food on the table (these are all issues that are way beyond the scope of this thread). And yes, a tragic portion of parents don't take proper care of their kids as well because they're too selfish to do it. But the point is that while parental involvement is great, schools have a role to play, too. And particularly in poor districts, they are failing. Teachers may have noble motives, but the deck is stacked against them. Inner city schools literally don't have enough money to buy textbooks. After school programs are getting slashed which often leaves kids with nothing to do but get in trouble. And teachers all too often are called on to teach classes they aren't qualified for. It's not their fault. But when you're called on to teach biology and you don't have any kind of science degree, the chances that you'll excite and inspire anyone to become a scientist when they grow up are very low. And then you've got the police or the Secret Service getting called in whenever a kid points his finger like a gun or brings a giant burrito to the school (no really, it happened. I can cite it if you want).
My point is that we have a cultural problem with education here, but the education system is also not in good shape. Is it broken? In certain parts of Wilmington, I would argue that it's pretty close. I read the filings from people who haven't retained an attorney to do it for them. These people are mostly products of the local education system, and the picture isn't pretty. So yeah, maybe mom and dad shouldn't have taken them out to the library, but at the very bare minimum, shouldn't schools teach teach people how to punctuate?
And as far as I'm concerned, the fact that Intelligent Design was even seriously considered in some school districts as part of the science curriculum is evidence of something very wrong with the system. And before you protest that Intelligent Design is legitimate science or has legitimate points or that it has a right to be taught just as much as the theory of evolution, I suggest you go and actually figure out what the words "science," "evolution" and "intelligent design" mean.
I actually think the public education system in middle class suburbia is adequate. In some particularly wealthy places like Montgomery County in Maryland, it's excellent. But in poor neighborhoods, the system is fighting a losing battle as kids are pushed out with barely adequate reading, writing and math skills and then they grow up to become parents who don't know to demand more in their turn from the school system.
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We compare our test scores to other countries who don't have inclusive school systems. The end effect is that we are comparing 100% of our kids to the top 40% of theirs.
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I've actually read a lot of articles suggesting that the dropout rate in high schools is as much as 50% in Texas and is often artificially hidden by altered records. If this is true, that would mean that a significant portion of our students aren't being counted either. You're the education guy, so I'll just let you comment as you will.